Did God Kill Jesus?

The church has a problem with the cross. What was supposed to be a potent symbol of God’s love has become an instrument for making Christians feel guilty and ashamed, even unlovable—the very things the cross was meant to remedy. In Did God Kill Jesus? popular theologian, blogger, speaker, and author Tony Jones invites us to explore how the church lost its way, showing us how we can restore the cross to its rightful place at the center of Christian faith as an inspiring message of how much God loves us and as an inspiration to love others.

Endorsements

“Christians struggle to fully comprehend the significance of Christ’s death. Tony Jones has written an honest and important book to help readers make sense of the cross and its implications for our lives today. This is a book every Christian should read.”
—Adam Hamilton, author of Making Sense of the Bible and senior pastor of Church of the Resurrection

“This important, smart, readable, and ultimately beautiful book allows this generation to re-claim the cross as the place of God’s deepest love rather than the place of our deepest shame. Jones unlocks the chains of fear and shame that bind so much of Christianity and offers us instead, freedom. I am so grateful for this important book. I will honestly be referring people to Did God Kill Jesus? for decades to come. It’s that important. If I had this book in seminary, several of my classes would have made a lot more sense.”
—Nadia Bolz-Weber, author of Pastrixand pastor of House for All Sinners and Saints

“Engaging and accessible, written with the right mix of humility and conviction, Did God Kill Jesus? invites readers to wrestle with key questions about Christianity. I learned something new on every page and will be thinking about this one for a long, long time.”
—Rachel Held Evans, author of A Year of Biblical Womanhood and Searching for Sunday

“I love this book—not because I agree with all of it, but because I agree with Jesus and it helped me see him more clearly. Tony Jones explores the great mystery of how one of the most offensive events in history has become the conduit of God’s love.”
—Shane Claiborne, author, activist, and follower of the executed and risen Jesus

“Did God Kill Jesus? is the one and only book I have ever seen on the atonement that I can wholeheartedly recommend without reservation and with devout enthusiasm. Even-handed, historically complete, accessible to any reader who chooses to approach it, this is a masterful piece of work.”
—Phyllis Tickle, author of The Great Emergence

“This book might change how you think about the Cross, but it is much more likely that it will change how you pray your way toward the Cross. Jones concludes with Julian of Norwich feeling God’s presence and understanding the Cross as a source of peace—as you will, too.”
—Lauren F. Winner, author of Wearing God and professor of Christian spirituality at Duke University Divinity School

“An extended exploration of one of Christian theology’s oldest, most vexing, intriguing, and important questions. Jones urges us to reject the most popular conventional answers and embrace better alternatives. You’ll be grateful for a chance to think alongside a passionate, inspiring theologian who writes with clarity, intensity, and relentless curiosity.”
—Brian D. McLaren, author of A New Kind of Christianity

“An exciting historical journey of understanding the death of Jesus with insights that are biblically sound, culturally astute, and contextually relevant. Jones moves us to reconsider our traditional means of seeing God, sin, Christ, and each other, leaving us with an indelible new sense of the meaning of the cross.”
—Grace Ji-Sun Kim, author of Colonialism, Han, and the Transformative Spirit

“If you love Jesus and the Bible, but don’t know what to do about a God whose default mode is disgust with humanity, who demands a payment for a debt we cannot pay, and who kills his Son to appease his anger, you need to read Did God Kill Jesus?”
—Peter Enns, author of The Bible Tells Me So and professor of New Testament at Eastern University

“Too often simple ignorance of our theological history traps us in dead ways of thinking. For some, all the questions surrounding atonement have been long settled, but for Jones—and a rising revolution of thoughtful Christians—faithfulness to the God of the present sometimes means we must betray the past.”
—Ryan Meeks, founding pastor of EastLake Church

“Jones draws from what we know to be the nature of God to conclude that the essence of atonement, the heart of Christianity, is not punishment or judgment for original sin, but love. Accessible, bold, and brilliant, this book should be read by everyone.”
—Sharon Tan, Vice President of Academic Affairs and Professor of Christian Ethics at United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities

“With this masterfully penned proposal, Jones has redeemed ‘redemption’ for many today who, despite being put off by the blood-crazed, ‘vampire’ vision of Christianity, desperately desire to discover the God of love in the egregious Golgotha. And Tony has done this with theological rigor and pastoral playfulness, with wisdom and wit.”
—José Francisco Morales, Director of Pastoral Formation, Disciples Seminary Foundation

Responses

Adam Erickson on Patheos: “The book is an accessible theological tour de force.”

Ryan Parker on Patheos: “Did God Kill Jesus: Looking for Love in History’s Most FamousExecution, is one of those rare texts that is both informative and inspirational. It’s given me fresh eyes with which to see the crucifixion–timely given the arrival of Holy Week–and a view of God that makes sense in and for the world in which we live.”

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tj [at] tonyj [dot] net

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I could never be an evangelical pastor because I could never master the art of the earnest whisper.